As often as vampires and other horror monsters
have been adopted to teen fantasy narratives (mostly adapted from poorly
written YA fiction) or zombie horror is combined with humor (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Warm Bodies, Shaun of the Dead etc), Freaks
of Nature is a parody which seems so inevitable in its arrival that it
feels somewhat derivative. Everything and the kitchen sink is thrown into the
mix, filling the narrative with every usual suspect from the horror genre,
while never taking any of it seriously enough for impact beyond pastiche. Even
in the gruesomeness of the film’s monster violence (which includes every horror
creature, save ghosts) the impact is for humor shock value rather than any
intention to inspire fear from the audience.

Taking place in
the fictional small town of Dillford
in a future where zombies, humans and vampires live in relatively peaceful
segregated coexistence, order is destroyed by the arrival of alien invaders.
Despite their differences, these three groups of citizens must band together to
stop the invasion in a transparent and unfocused metaphor for modern America. Much
of this occurs within the familiar dynamics of a local high school, where
vampires, humans and zombies all have their place in the social order.

Prior to the arrival of alien
spaceships, Dag (Nicholas Braun) is just a gawkish teenager with unrealistic
goals of sleeping with a popular stoner named Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens). With
storylines borrowed heavily from classic high school comedies, Dag neglects the
faithful friends from his past in his ambition towards popularity and sexual
activity, including his former best friend, Ned (Josh Fadem). Disheartened by
the lack of support from his family, Ned decides that he would be happier
without the obligation of intelligence and intentionally becomes a zombie.
Meanwhile, Petra
(Mackenzie Davis) allows herself to be bitten by a vampire (Ed Westwick)
because she thinks it will make him like her more. Ironically, he has no
interest in having sex with her, already relying on Lorelei for that service.

Dag, Ned and Petra
are forced to work together when the alien apocalypse begins in the town of Dillford, despite each
being from different groups of the monster cliques. At this point the narrative
slips into similar themes as The
Breakfast Club; but will they still be friends when the invasion is over
and everything has gone back to “normal?” Thankfully, we are never asked to
take any of the ideas in Freaks of Nature
too seriously, which is helped by an assortment of great comedic actors filling
the supporting roles. Bob Odenkirk and Joan Cusack are Dag’s weed-smoking hippy
parents, Patton Oswalt is his former piano teacher, Keegan-Michael Key is a
lonely vampire high school teacher, and Denis Leary is the town’s wealthiest
entrepreneur. “Parenthood” star Mae Whitman even has an unflattering cameo as
Ned’s zombie girlfriend.

Freaks of Nature may never be as clever as the absurd premise promises, but the
willingness to approach the entire endeavor with tongue-in-cheek humor helps
gloss over the film’s shortcomings. Don’t take it too seriously and it makes
for good campy entertainment. The Blu-ray special features are made up entirely
of three types of additional footage. These include a gag reel with many of the
comedic actors having a field day, an alternate opening sequence, and a handful
more deleted scenes.